It is often desirable to display an upper body garment upon an upper hanger while simultaneously displaying a lower body garment upon a lower hanger which "hangs" from the upper hanger. Accordingly, a variety of hanger arrangements have been introduced into the garment industry--one of the more popular arrangements being the drop loop hanger.
The drop loop hanger employs a two-piece construction. The first "upper" piece is typically a standard, shoulder-shaped hanger for use with upper body clothing. The second "lower" piece includes an elongated vertical body and a lower clamping member to support a piece of lower body clothing, such as pants. The upper end of the elongated body is formed into a "loop" which may be placed over the hook member of the upper hanger and suspended therefrom, and subsequently support any garment which is attached to the lower hanger.
The drop loop hanger, and similar variations, has proven to work quite well in the display and merchandising of two-piece clothing outfits. However, the construction of the hanger has shown a certain structural weakness whereby its use is often limited to light and medium weight clothing. Specifically, the plastic injection molding process employed to form the lower hanger invariably leaves a "weld line" at some location within the loop section of the suspended hanger section, giving such loop section a limited tensile strength.
In injection molding, weld lines are the result of the joining of plastic materials which are flowing from different directions during the injection process. Very frequently the adhesive joint which is formed between oppositely flowing materials causes a weak area in the molded part. Indeed, such weld lines are inherent in all ring-shaped injection molded products since the injected plastic must, at some point around the ring, reconnect with itself. The weakness results from the cooling of the materials as they flow from opposite directions toward their joining point. By the time the two masses of plastic material reach their joining point, they have lost the capability to adequately intermingle in order to form a bond of acceptable strength.
A weld line in an injection molded part, such as the drop loop hanger, is much the same as a glued butt joint at the end of two pieces of wood. With no fibers crossing the joint, it has an inherently weak tensile strength and is susceptible to being pulled apart by tensile forces. The drop loop hanger, therefore, is susceptible to breakage at the weld line in its loop section if the hanger is used with heavier weight clothing or if it is handled roughly.
In light of the structural deficiencies associated with the current drop loop hangers in the garment industry, what is needed in this field of art is a drop loop hanger which, quite simply, can be manufactured without the presence of weld lines being disposed at locations at which they are susceptible to being pulled apart by the weight forces (tensile forces) imposed upon them.